More shortcut problems.

This time, it's the hotel cut at Porto Kora, just before the tunnel. In theory, cutting through the hotel at speed will carry your ship all the way over to the entrance of the tunnel and shave seconds off the laptime.

The problem is, the Icaras isn't getting enough lift to go over the shortcut without having to be reset by the Wusswagon. Using D-pad puts me at a disadvantage since, obviously, the pitch and steering are on the same axis, and this shortcut involves (1) a sharp turn in a ship that doesn't turn well and (2) having enough speed and clearance to cut that section of the track and land at the entrance of the tunnel.

Suggestions?

If I remember right, a tap of the airbrake-right just before you go over the ramp quickly followed by a nose-up + hyperthrust gives you a fairly good start on the path.
I'm pretty sure zargz has some good videos of him doing this cut on YouTube, he lands it on that downhill ramp into the tunnel and he's got perfect pitch on landing, it's just slick like butter. Totally beautiful.
Never did manage it that nicely myself, but I played with it a bit when we were doing the "sub minute racetime" challenge.

Ah. What I've been doing is just hitting the hyperthrust at the lip of the ramp while I'm flying over the speed pads, and pulling up. I'll give that a shot sometime. I'll be up in New York this week visiting my grandparents and the family on my dad's side, I should have some time to practice but I'm going to have to spend a lot of time with my gradma, who is quite ill at the moment...